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ViewCuddly Knut
Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insists he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.

ViewCuddly Knut
Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insists he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.

A German zoo has been told it should let a baby polar bear named
Knut die after it was rejected by its mother.

Knut, known as "cuddly Knut", and his twin brother were
abandoned shortly after birth in December by 20-year-old Tosca, a
former performing polar bear at an East German zoo.

The twin died in freezing conditions but Knut was saved and has
since been hand-reared by Berlin Zoo keeper Thomas Doerflein, who
sleeps by his side, bottle-feeds him and even plays Elvis Presley
songs to him on a guitar, German news reports say.

Reuters says three-month-old Knut has become an unofficial
Berlin city mascot and has also starred in a climate change
campaign by world-renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz.

But the case has sparked debate over whether it is right for a
human to nurture a polar bear.

1174153106086-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/conservation/kill-him-you-must-be-knuts/2007/03/21/1174153106086.htmlsmh.com.auAAP2007-03-21Kill him? You must be Knuts!Jano GibsonEnvironmentEnvironmentConservationhttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/03/21/knut1_wideweb__470x394,0.jpg

Berlin Zoo's abandoned Knut has become a front page media darling, but an animal rights activist insists he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.